Iran rejects bid to halt its nuclear program

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Iran has defiantly insisted that it will never give up its
nuclear fuel program, despite a new united policy of incentives and
threats from the European Union and Washington.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to use peaceful
nuclear technology and no pressure, intimidation or threat can make
Iran give up its right," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza
Asefi said at the weekend.

Tehran says its nuclear facilities will only be used to generate
electricity and never diverted to weapons production.

The EU and Washington, which suspect Iran could use its nuclear
power program to make atomic bombs, unveiled a co-ordinated carrot
and stick approach on Friday aimed at pressuring Tehran to give up
sensitive activities such as uranium enrichment, which can be used
to make bomb-grade fuel.

Iran has frozen enrichment while it tries to negotiate a
settlement with the EU big three: Britain, Germany and France.

While the EU trio said they would back US demands to send Iran's
case to the United Nations Security Council if Tehran resumed
enrichment, Washington, in a policy shift, offered practical
backing for the EU's diplomatic approach.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington would
allow Iran to begin talks on joining the World Trade Organisation
and would consider letting it buy civilian airline parts if it
stopped activities that could produce fuel for nuclear power plants
or atomic weapons.

WTO membership and aircraft spares are key incentives the EU
hoped would persuade Iran to scrap enrichment plans. The EU would
be unable to deliver these incentives without US support.

But Iran dismissed them as meaningless. Mr Asefi said US
restrictions on the sale of aircraft spares to Iran should never
have been imposed.

"Lifting them is no concession and entering the WTO is a clear
right of all countries," he said. "Correcting some errors and
lifting some restrictions imposed on Iran without reason will not
stop Iran from acquiring its legitimate rights."

Iran says it can offer the world "objective guarantees" that it
will not make atom bombs. These would include measures such as
allowing intrusive UN inspections of its nuclear sites.

The defiance from Tehran coincides with a report that Israel has
secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in
Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear program.

The inner cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is
reported by The Times in London to have given initial authorisation
for an attack, at a meeting last month on Mr Sharon's property in
the Negev desert. Israeli forces are believed to have used a
mock-up of Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant to practise
destroying it.

In Caracas, Iran's President Mohammad Khatami said on Saturday
that Tehran was willing to work with nations seeking to prevent it
from developing nuclear weapons. He was in Caracas to sign economic
and energy deals with Venezuela.

"We are not going to give up our rights," Mr Khatami said. "But
at the same time we are willing to work with the world to give more
security that Iran is not moving towards construction of nuclear
weapons."

Hassan Rohani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, said a key
Iran-EU meeting would be held in Paris on March 23.